In his house on avenue des Étourneaux in Montluçon, Roland Vincent stares at the living room window. Memories of Dunlop ?? He has a lot of them, he tells us with a smirk. Combining actions with words, he shows us his album of memories and the black and white photos he has carefully captioned.
Our series on the hundred years of Dunlop in Montluçon
Born in Dunlop City in 1925, he began working in the factory at the age of 15 as an orderly. “It consisted of receiving the guests, having them fill out a form and ask them who they wanted to see at the factory,” he describes.
“I had no families to hold me back, I rushed”
During the war, he became a courier. Distributing the mail allowed him to know the factory from A to Z. In 1943 he joined the Resistance, through his knowledge of the company.
“I liked to take risks, you know I had no families to hold me back, I went for it,” explains Roland Vincent, who lost his mother at the age of 4.
After the bombardment of Dunlop in 1943, he joined the maquis, left for Cantal. Then it is Indochina. He describes the storms in the Indian Ocean, recounts having returned three years later with dysentery and malaria, and above all having lost several of his companions.
I was offered to receive the Legion of Honor, but when I think of my friends who were massacred, who had their heads cut off, I tell myself that it is not me who deserves it
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On his return from Asia, he found Montluçon, his city, and returned to Dunlop, his factory. “As I liked driving, I was appointed to the garage. I was a bus driver, I drove the employees to the factory, I started at 3:30 am and finished at 1:00 pm. We even worked on Sunday morning, before playing on the football field in the afternoon. “
Roland Vincent, with his comrades (he is standing, on the right).
600 kilometers per day to test tires
Then Roland Vincent was offered to become a test pilot. “I had to test tires at a rate of 600 kilometers per day, on the road between Montluçon and Bourges. At a time when there was no highway or speed limit, Roland Vincent was speeding up to 150 kilometers per hour in the countryside. “It pinched the buttocks,” he said, adding that it was a dangerous job. “I wasn’t daredevil but I liked it. “
One day a car ran into his while he was stationary, he was seriously injured and his career at Dunlop continued in the office. “That was a joke. “
Gala matches at Dunlop Stadium
In parallel with his work at the factory, Roland Vincent played for a long time within the first football team of the EDSM (Étoile des sports montluçonnais). “We won many titles in honor, in Auvergne. We went up to the French championship once, but we quickly came down, we didn’t have the team for this level. “
Roland Vincent (left), shaking hands with Robert Jonquet, player of the French team after the war.
He played as left winger, midfielder and then central defender. One of his achievements is to have played at Dunlop stadium in front of eleven thousand spectators, during an exhibition match against the great Reims of Raymond Kopa.
The meeting with John William
Roland Vincent is one of the rare Montluçonnais still alive to have known John William during the war, when the future artist was still called Ernest Huss. “I have a tape, which I play back from time to time,” comments the Montluçonnais, who played football with him in the EDSM in the 1940s.
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John William, the singer with the baritone voice who remains in the posterity for the credits of films of Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago or The longest day, had worked as a fitter-toolmaker at Dunlop then at Sagem, before experiencing the Deportation.
John William, world star of song, and victim of the Nazis in Montluçon during the war
“After the war, he returned to Montluçon and looked for the parents of Paul Labeaune, one of my school friends, to tell them how he had died of suffocation during the Deportation,” recalls Roland Vincent.
In avenue des Étourneaux, near the Bien-Assis district, the nonagenarian regrets the warmth of the neighborhood. “Dunlop City was a family. When someone died, we went on a quest, everyone gave what they wanted. People helped each other to set up a cabin or a rabbit cage. There was a spirit of camaraderie and respect among the neighbors. By 11 a.m. everyone was in bed so as not to disturb those who were working early the next day. “
Guillaume Bellavoine
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